The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor(s), to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Power consumption is an important consideration for mobile devices that use batteries. To address power consumption concerns, mobile devices use many different approaches to conserve power. One example of a power saving feature is discontinuous reception (DRX) mode. The DRX mode conserves power by periodically placing wireless communication components of a mobile device into a low power state.
The DRX mode is composed of different time periods. For example, the DRX mode includes an on-duration interval when the wireless communication components are briefly powered on and an inactive interval when the components are in the low power state. The on-duration interval is necessary to maintain communications with a base station even though the mobile device is in the DRX mode to conserve power. Additionally, when using the DRX mode, the mobile device still needs to perform other functions that are necessary to maintain certain other functions e.g., handover capabilities.
For example, a mobile device has a wireless range that is used to communicate to a first base station. Suppose that the mobile device moves between different locations, which changes the distance between the mobile device and the first base station (as well as other nearby base stations). When the mobile device leaves the wireless range of the first base station, communications transition to a second base station that is within the wireless range. For the transition to occur seamlessly, the mobile device periodically measures properties of signals from neighboring base stations (e.g., the second base station) while still communicating with the first base station. A period of time when the mobile device performs the measurements is a measurement gap. The measurement gap permits the mobile device to obtain information about the neighboring base stations that is used when moving between base stations.
However during the measurement gap, the mobile device cannot receive communications from the first base station, which can cause communication difficulties between the mobile device and the first base station. These difficulties can result in throughput loss, which is undesirable.